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en-usTechdirt. Stories filed under "fullerton"https://ii.techdirt.com/s/t/i/td-88x31.gifhttps://www.techdirt.com/Mon, 23 Dec 2013 23:43:12 PSTFullerton Police 'Use Of Force' Trainer Says No Policies Violated During Beating Death Of Kelly ThomasTim Cushinghttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20131219/08425525630/fullerton-police-use-force-trainer-says-no-policies-violated-during-beating-death-kelly-thomas.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20131219/08425525630/fullerton-police-use-force-trainer-says-no-policies-violated-during-beating-death-kelly-thomas.shtml
More expert witnesses have been called in to testify in the beating death of Kelly Thomas. The defense called in its two final witnesses late last week -- Cpl. Stephen Rubio, a "use of force" trainer for the Fullerton PD, and Dr. Stephen Karch, a forensic pathologist.

“In the video, all things considered, I don’t see anything out of policy,” Rubio said.

Among the things that failed to fall outside of the Fullerton PD's use of force policy are Officer Cicinelli repeatedly striking Thomas in the face with the butt of his Taser and Officer Ramos announcing that he was "getting ready to fuck [Thomas] up."

As for the first non-violation of policy? Apparently if your Taser is not "effective," you can just turn it into a blunt-force weapon.

[R]ubio said the Taser that Cicinelli used on Thomas wasn’t working correctly because Thomas continued to fight and the device made a noise that indicated it was being “ineffective...”

Officers, he said, are allowed to improvise with their weapons, though they aren’t trained to use a Taser as an impact weapon.

So, officers aren't trained to improvise with their Tasers but somehow Cicinelli's freelancing isn't a violation of policy. Then there's this marvel of a sentence.

Strikes to the head and face can be dangerous depending on what items are used, how hard they land and where they hit the suspect, Rubio said.

When an expert witness paraphrases the obvious and offers it up as testimony, it's time to dismiss them from the stand. Rubio's saying what everyone knows, including the defense. Smashing people in the face does tons of damage, most of which has incredibly deleterious effects on the beaten person's health. In contrast, a former FBI agent testifying for the prosecution referred to Cicnelli's "improvisation" as the use of "deadly force." And yet, somehow this still falls within the flexible parameters of Fullerton PD's "use of force" policy.

As does this:

Defense attorneys also asked Rubio about a part in the video in which Ramos put on white latex gloves and tells Thomas, “See these fists? ... They’re getting ready to f--- you up.”

John Barnett, who is representing Ramos, asked Rubio if his client’s words were consistent with his training.

“Yes, it was a conditional threat,” Rubio said. “The profanity may be off-color and may be a slight policy violation.”

Still the use of words, even profane ones, as a means to avoid endangering an officer or suspect is acceptable, Rubio said.

So, the swearing was the only problem. Other than that, threatening someone with violence is completely "by the book" for the Fullerton PD. "Conditional threats?" Perfectly fine. (Not that Ramos' threat was conditional…) Just don't swear. "Please hand me your license and registration or I'll beat you with the butt end of my Taser." "If you don't place your hands behind your head, I'm going to hit you with every non-lethal weapon I have in my arsenal." "If you make me get a warrant, I'm going to rip your house apart and kill your pets." All by the book.

Dr. Steven Karch, the final witness for two former city police officers charged with killing Kelly Thomas, said the homeless man suffered from methamphetamine cardiomyopathy, a weakening of the heart caused by drug abuse.

"He could have died sitting in a closet by himself," Karch said.

Could have. But didn't.

Thomas died five days after lapsing into an irreversible coma -- a coma he lapsed into while being beaten and restrained by six Fullerton police officers. All else being equal, I'm sure he would have preferred dying alone in a closet, rather than being beaten to death.

Karch, like many other coroners and pathologists before him, blamed the dead man for instigating his own death.

[K]arch said Thomas' clash with police was "precipitated" by a spontaneous psychotic episode brought on by past meth use.

Karch stands alone on this, contradicting both the Orange County coroner and UC Irvine trauma surgeon, who each determined Thomas had died from a lack of oxygen to the brain precipitated by chest compression and multiple injuries to the face.

According to Karch, there's only one person who truly knows why Kelly Thomas died.

Karch wouldn't say whether Thomas' fight with police on July 5, 2011, caused his heart to fail but said it could be a possibility.

"I would suspect that the added stress of this fight or physical altercation would make it worse," Karch said.

"So you're not saying he was destined to die on that particular day and the police just happened to be there?" Rackauckas said.

"Only God can say that," Karch said.

Nice. Too bad The Almighty can't be tapped to testify. According to toxicology reports, Thomas had no drugs or alcohol in his system on the night he died, but this fact matters little to those who see every beating death as the inevitable end to a drug "abuser's" life. If the cops don't get to him first, Thomas dies from heart complications -- maybe that same night, maybe 20 years later. Six on one side, half-dozen on the other.

Karch really had to stretch to make this theory fit a 135-lb. homeless man with no drugs in his system.

Thomas, he said, appeared to have had a psychotic episode the night he clashed with police, because only someone with "some kind of mental malfunction" would take on six police officers.

The strength it would take to fight with half a dozen police officers would normally be difficult to gather, but would be easy under a meth-induced psychotic episode, he said.

Except, of course, there was no meth in Thomas' system. What then?

[P]eople who habitually use meth can still be affected years later by the drug, suffering from such things as a weak heart and spontaneous psychotic episodes, Karch said.

So, if you've used drugs even once in your life (or have been arrested for possession), prepare to have that held against you by those attempting to brush aside accusations of brutality. No drugs in your system? Must just be some bad flashbacks. "Yeah, the perp fought hard, like a psycho. We needed six officers just to keep him restrained. Found out he used meth regularly up until 1995. No wonder he was such a monster NEARLY 20 YEARS LATER."

There's nothing facetious about this scenario.

A doctor who prepared a report on Thomas after he attacked his grandfather in 1995 with a fireplace poker wrote that Thomas told him he used methamphetamine and did "a lot" of LSD up until 1994.

No drugs in his system. It doesn't mean Thomas hadn't used meth recently, but it does mean he hadn't used any in a rather long period of time -- long enough that its traces had vanished from his system. And yet, the defense paints a portrait of a psychotic, amped up on drug flashbacks, overpowering six police officers who outweighed him by at least at 10-to-1 ratio. A psychotic who died of a preexisting heart condition no less, despite the fact his face resembled a tenderized side of beef by the time his comatose body arrived at the trauma center.

No one would expect the defense team to do any less in order to spring its clients, but the justifications and theories are old hat. They've been deployed by countless law enforcement agencies in the past. But they have to sway a jury this time, not just placate pesky members of the press. We'll see how that goes.

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]]>by-the-book-manslaughterhttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20131219/08425525630Tue, 3 Dec 2013 07:32:49 PSTLawyer For Cop Charged In Beating Death Of Homeless Man Claims Officer Didn't Use ENOUGH ForceTim Cushinghttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20131202/17500425437/lawyer-cop-charged-beating-death-homeless-man-claims-officer-didnt-use-enough-force.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20131202/17500425437/lawyer-cop-charged-beating-death-homeless-man-claims-officer-didnt-use-enough-force.shtml
The trial for two of the three Fullerton police officers charged in the beating death of mentally ill homeless man, Kelly Thomas, has begun. Manuel Ramos, the officer who first approached Kelly Thomas and delivered most of the damage, is facing charges of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter. Officer Jay Ciccinelli, who arrived on the scene moments later, is facing charges of involuntary manslaughter and use of excessive force.

When a "recalcitrant" Thomas did not comply, Ramos was entitled to use force and the threat of force to complete his arrest, Barnett contended in his 80-page motion.

"Rather than use actual force, Officer Ramos employed a lawful, conditional threat, to use force," he wrote. "The death of Kelly Thomas was not the natural and probable consequence of that lawful threat."

The recording shows Ramos relied almost exclusively on "force" rather than the "threat of force." As mentioned earlier, Ramos approached a seated Thomas before the beating commenced and said, "You see these fists? They are getting ready to fuck you up." That, I suppose, would be considered a "threat of force." Ramos wasn't kidding. His fists, along with his nightstick and additional abuse from a handful of other officers, completely "fucked up" Kelly Thomas, leaving him in an irreversible coma. Jay Cicinelli contributed in his own way, beating Thomas' face with the butt end of his Taser. (Cicinelli is captured on Ramos' mic stating that he "smashed [Thomas'] face to hell.")

There's really no questioning what happened. Security camera footage, synched to Ramos' mic, paints a brutally clear picture of how much Thomas went through before his body and mind gave out. Even the coroner's report notes the death wasn't accidental, listing "mechanical suppression of the thorax" as the cause of death. [The recording is 33 minutes long. The "altercation" begins about 15 minutes in. Five minutes later, there are six officers restraining Thomas. Warning: video, especially Thomas' anguished screams, is Not Safe For Life.]

Ramos’ attorney… told jurors that the officers who beat Thomas on a summer night in 2011 not only didn’t use excessive force in the incident, they “weren’t using enough force.”

The officers were forced to call for backup because they could not subdue an out-of-control Thomas, John Barnett said. “They’re losing the fight,” Barnett said.

Watch that tape again (or for the first time) and see whether it appears the cops are "losing the battle." Thomas, who weighed 135 pounds, was subdued by six Fullerton officers. The recording clearly captures him telling officers he can't breathe. Thomas was homeless and suffered from schizophrenia. While he wasn't cooperative with Ramos' instructions before he was beaten, he was still pretty far from being a threat. Last year, Barnett claimed the force was "appropriate." Now, he claims it was "too little." Officer Ramos apparently has no idea how to deploy an appropriate amount of force, despite his training.

Barnett continues:

“This case is not about a homeless, helpless, harmless mentally ill guy, this case is about a man who made choices in his life, bad choices that led to his tragic death,” Barnett said.

No one's arrest should end in death -- no matter what "choices" they've made -- not when six officers are looking to control one person. And for Barnett to claim that somehow choices the mentally ill Thomas made earlier in his life contributed to his death is not only disingenuous, it's genuinely sickening. If that's the case, then bad choices made by Officers Ramos and Cicinelli in their lives led to them being charged with manslaughter and murder.

This isn't about Kelly Thomas' life choices. This is about the choices made by a handful of officers -- choices that resulted in the death of a man whose life, what there was of it, came to a sudden halt because he ran into Officer Ramos and his backup.